CONVERSION IN MALAYSIA

Top ministers in Malaysia on April 20 met to end a row over the unilateral conversion of three children of an ethnic Indian Hindu woman to Islam by their father recently. Human Resources Minister Dr S Subramanian, who is also the secretary general of the Malaysian Indian Congress, the largest ethnic Indian party in the country, said he and two other ministers met following a report by the children’s mother Indira Ghandi, stating that her kids were converted to Islam without her knowledge by her husband K. Patmanathan, who became a Muslim. 35-year-old Indira had turned to the Hindu Sangam branch in Ipoh after her 40-year-old husband, who is now known as Muhammad Ridzuan Abdullah, converted the children without their presence and without informing her, New Straits Times said. Malaysia Hindu Sangam president A. Vaithilingam has demanded the children be returned to their mother. He hoped the government would look seriously into the conversion of the children; the paper quoted him as saying.